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encouraging children, particularly little girls, to visit these places, and the objections of the parents
would always be a reasonable and paramount obstacle in the way of such stations being utilised for the
cleansing of children from the elementary schools. The child infected with vermin is of a totally different
class to the verminous adult. The one is capable of being trained and educated to be a cleanly and
self-respecting citizen, the other is lost in these respects and only to be treated as a nuisance requiring
mitigation so as to be tolerable. In St. Pancras an enlightened policy has been followed in the provision
of separate arrangements for children. On the other hand, in Southwark there is illustrated another
and effective way of dealing with this nuisance of verminous clothes.
The Superintendent of School Nurses reports that:—
The St. Pancras children make great use of the baths, and the teachers speak very highly of the improvement
of the children in school, both as regards their health and their attention to their work. It is certainly
remarkable to see what a difference can be made in the aspect of a child by such a weekly cleansing bath and clothes
free from vermin—the skin and colour improved, brighter eyes and a more intelligent look, and a disappearance of the
horrid fidgetting, the result of irritation. There is no question of the popularity of such a bath with the children ; often
it is their first acquaintance with the joys of immersion in hot water, and the feeling of well-being that the use of it
with soap brings about. About a hundred children attended these baths weekly, but unfortunately many of these
relapsed into the same dirty state directly they ceased coming to the baths, showing the great need we have for
stronger measures in dealing with the homes. There is one district in London in which the co-operation of the Medical
Officer of Health has proved invaluable, that is, Southwark. It has been enough here to send the child once to the
cleansing station ; the child's name and address are sent to the Town Hall, a Sanitary Inspector visits, and has the
house cleansed and the bedding stoved. The nuisance of all this upset has so brought the need of cleanliness home
to the parents, that the effect remains for a long time, and perhaps never is it required to send the child again to the
cleansing station. The parents have a great horror of the arrival of the sanitary van being seen by the neighbours
and can be made to do a great deal to prevent it."
The Children Act, 1908, gives power to the Education Authority to examine and cleanse these
children in default of the parents. The cleansing of children being an entirely separate problem from
the cleansing of adults, there can be no objection to its being done by the Education Authority, and
it is a further step in the direction of trusting all public duties concerning the regular care of the child
as a child entirely to the one authority which looks after his general physical and mental development.
The cleansing of bodies and clothes when undertaken by the Education Authority will have to be done
by treating the very bad cases first. The cleansing stations should be on a comparatively modest
scale, as it is to be expected that the demand for their service will diminish in the course of a few years.
A cheap method of rapidly sterilising and drying clothes, in 15 to 20 minutes, is highly desirable, but
not yet attainable. It would probably much simplify arrangements and considerably reduce
expenditure.
Cleansing Of Clothes.—An attempt was made to find out how far the use of sterilising apparatus
would aid in destroying the offensive animals. To be effective the apparatus should be cheap, easily
worked and not liable to get out of order, or cause dangerous risks. The clothes should be sterilised
and fit for wear within the half hour. Dr. Brincker has made some experiments in this direction.
A zinc-lined cupboard was constructed in which formalin vapour could be diffused by a lamp, to which
the clothes were exposed, but although half an hour's exposure to formalin vapour in varying strengths
up to twelve times that usually recommended, and so strong that the operator could hardly face it,
no effect was produced on the pediculi ; even when exposed to it in test tubes they were quite lively
three day3 later. A steam apparatus in use at the Favus School was also experimented with and with
steam at 100 deg. C., in twenty minutes both pediculi and nits were completely destroyed. If there
were means of cleansing clothes easily it would then be possible to insist on children attending school
free from body vermin, their re-appearance on any child who had been cleansed being sufficient reason
for the sanitary authorities insisting on complete disinfection of the house from which the child comes.
The fact that formalin fails so completely, however, with pediculi is worthy of note in reference to houses
as well as the clothes.
Secondary Schools.—The medical examination in secondary schools revealed an unsatisfactory
state of personal hygiene among the pupils and the following scheme has now been adopted to
deal with this condition :—
The nurse visits the school, examines the pupils and supplies the head mistress with a copy of
the following card for each case where the personal hygiene is found to be unsatisfactory :—
Obverse.
M.0.9. 4
LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL.
PRIVATE NOTICE.
Your attention is called to the unsatisfactory condition of this pupil's hair.
She should return to school on the The nurse will see
her again, when it is hoped that the condition will be remedied.
Head mistress.
Date
20261 E2